The Plastic of Plates, Plugs... and Pennies?

THE POTTI TEAM BLOG

The unending quest for vintage jewelry knowledge has led me down some pretty strange paths, many of them of surprising historical significance.  One of those amazing detours has led me to the first truly synthetic plastic, usually referred to as Bakelite.

Pronounced "bake-a-light," and spelled with a capital B, it was invented by Dr. Leo Baekeland in 1907. Although he used a wood flour stabilizer, the significant chemical bond that made it a plastic was formed between formaldehyde and phenol, making it a synthetic plastic.

Bakelite, once it is formed, is heat resistant. It also does not conduct electricity.  As Bakelite usage spread, it had electrical applications far and wide. 

It was used as insulators, tubing, and housings.  It was used for electrical plugs, socket plates, light switch plates, telephone housings and receivers, radio housings, and even camera housings.

 It was used for common household objects - as pool (billiard) balls, utensil handles, toys for the children, chess and checkers pieces, dominoes and buttons.  War time led to metal shortages, and Bakelite helped to make up for the shortage.  The most fantastic use (in my mind at least) for which Bakelite was considered was as money.  It was seriously considered as material for the 1943 U.S. penny.  Steel was chosen instead, for the penny, at least.

Metal shortage in the jewelry industry was not solved by the usage of steel, but one solution was indeed Bakelite.  It was not the first plastic that the jewelry industry had seen (there had been galalith and celluloid), but again, it was the first synthetic plastic ever, and as such, the first the jewelry industry had seen.  It also proved to be more durable than those which had gone before.

The term plastic jewelry makes many jewelry lovers wince, but not if we are talking about Bakelite.  Some Bakelite jewelry was quite classy - Coco Channel sold Bakelite jewelry, and I can assure you it was not cheap! Vintage jewelry need not bear a designer name to be of value when made of Bakelite; the more elaborately carved and attractive pieces can be of surprising value. 

To be factual, the patent on Bakelite ran out in 1927, and the formaldehyde phenol polymer, used without the filler Baekeland had used, emerged with differing names, and a variety of fillers.  In spite of this, these pieces are known in the jewelry business under the name Bakelite as an inclusive term.

How do you know if the vintage jewelry, or domino, or button that you have is Bakelite?  This is one of those mysterious talents that seems to come only with use.  Rubbing a Q-tip wet with 409 or Simichrome on Bakelite is supposed to turn the Q-tip yellow, but these tests are not fool proof.  Some say that they do not work with black Bakelite, and furthermore, if you do not carefully clean the chemicals off after testing, they could damage some of the other early plastics.  Knowing Bakelite is a bit like knowing many things in the  antique and vintage world - you have to handle it to know it.

Bakelite is typically heavier than other plastics, and it has a distinct odor when heated.  The best vintage shoppers can rub a thumb briskly across a piece of Bakelite until it is very warm, and smell that thumb, and detect it.  It is described as an acrid chemistry lab smell that gives many people a bit of a headache. 

Chip and I have purchased a couple of pieces that were sold as Bakelite, to test and get to know.  We have found a few that tested positive with either the Simichrome or 409, or both.  But the smell test escaped us.

 I am sensitive to lots of chemical smells, but I just could not develop the ability to sniff     out Bakelite.

Some advice from our Captain Jesse was invaluable - he suggested placing jewelry (obviously not a piece that could be harmed by the moisture, such as one with rhinestones embedded in it) that had been heated by running hot water, in a plastic bag for an hour.  Chip did this, and got a good whiff of Bakelite smell.  Which is why he, at least, can identify it for us now, even by the thumb rub method!  This is good, since he is my buyer, after all!  Michele Davidson

Further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite

http://www.retrothing.com/2008/01/1943-steel-penn.html

http://shermari-buyingandsellingonline.blogspot.com/2011/06/telling-difference-between-bake-ivory.html

http://www.thecarrotbox.com/plastic/bakelite.asp

http://www.mbzponton.org/valueadded/maintenance/bakelitehist.htm

CURE FOR WORRY AND THE EVIL EYE
The Potti Team Blog

It is a scene from one of my all-time favorite novels - they are British, and run into each other on holiday.  He is driving a new Porsche, of which he is obviously quite fond.   He tells her in the marketplace that he is going to buy an evil eye for his love.  Later, he presents the evil eye to her.  "I thought you were buying it for your car," she replies.

"I said," he tells her, "that I was buying it for my love."

I read it in high school, and it was the first reference to the evil eye that I had encountered (other than that look my mom gave us as a warning that we needed to cease something immediately!).  Since then I have seen numerous beads and charms referred to as such, but I have not known much about their meaning, or their use. 

PANOS AND ANGIE

Since we have a Greek Etsy shop on the Potti Team that specializes in evil eyes, and komboloi and worry beads, and also has kind shop owners willing to indulge my curiosity, I was able to ask questions about which I have wondered for years, and also some that have surfaced more recently.

Panos and Angie are the Owners of SunnyBeadsByTheSea in Athens, Greece.  Panos began making worry beads as a hobby, and gave them as gifts to friends. His friends then requested that he make more, so they could give them to their friends. 

SunnybeadsByTheSea

Angie found Etsy, and it has proven to be a really good fit for them.    Angie is his "life and business partner," Panos says.  She is involved in designing their products, and she is also a talented graphic artist.  If you visit Sunny Beadz on Facebook, you will be corresponding with Angie, who also helps with shop promotions.

Panos provided me with answers to numerous questions, information about worry beads and evil eyes, and helpful sources that I will list for you at the end of this article as well.

So what did I learn? 

THE EVIL EYE

The evil eye is a term for a bead or charm, or for the ill from which it protects.  This ill can cover a number of things from a feeling of malaise, sometimes accompanied by a fever, to bad luck.  One article stated that it was a way to explain sickness before germs were understood, but in general, it seems to be taken more seriously than something that has been explained away by germs. 

The cause can be an evil look of malice by someone with ill will in his or her heart; it can be a look of envy, or sometimes even a look of someone with too great an admiration for another.  The danger in the latter case would be pride that might result from it. The person who has been cursed or harmed by the evil eye often does not realize it until they become sick, or bad things keep happening.  Children are believed to be most vulnerable.

Babies and children are often given evil eye jewelry because of this vulnerability.  Other people wear evil eyes as well.  They are also used on cars and homes - anything that could theoretically be cursed. 

I get the impression that giving someone an evil eye can be a way to express that you care about that person and do not want anything bad to happen to him or her.  That is a universal feeling, and this is the Greek way of expressing it.

(Should you wish to express your affection to someone in this manner,  SunnyBeadsByTheSea has a nice selection, many of them sterling at very reasonable prices!)

People of an unusual appearance, such as the deformed, were once credited with the ability to cast the evil eye.  Blue eyes are not so prevalent in Greece, and are even now considered suspect compared the more common brown eyes.  It is highly likely that this is the reason most evil eye charms or beads are blue, that they could effectively ward off the stare of the evil blue eye.

WORRY BEADS

Komboloi and worry beads are the same thing - a fact that simplified some of my questions.

The first komboloi in Greece are believed to have been strings of wool knots used to keep track of prayers by the monks of Mt. Athos in the middle ages.  In modern times they have no religious significance for Greeks. 

They are useful, however, to still restlessness, and are used to help stop smoking, to lose weight (to keep from eating), to calm stress, and just for the pleasure of feeling them with your fingers. 

There are komboloi used solely as decoration, and Panos included a photo of a home komboloi that is used in this manner.  You can see that it is absolutely lovely!

Worry beads, or komboloi, can be valued for the substances they are made of, for the sentimental value of their previous owner(s), or as a very personal object with which one has bonded.  Panos shared a photo of  the komboloi that belonged to his grandfather, probably made around the 1920s.  This has special significance in his family, as would a family memento from the 1920s to any of us!

There are two ways to use komboloi or worry beads.  One of them involves a very deliberate system of running the beads through one's fingers (in a precise manner); the other involves dividing the beads in half at a particular point, holding the connecting threads between your index and middle fingers, and swinging half of the beads over your hand to make a clicking sound against the beads that are there, then manipulating the threads so that you can swing the other half up and around to click against the second set.  You then repeat. This site illustrates very simple methods for both ways of using your beads:  www.wikihow.com/Use-Worry-Beads .

(For more detailed instructions, see the wikipedia.org reference at the end of this post.)

Worry beads are sometimes offered as gifts to the guests at a wedding.  Bomboniere are special gifts for guests who attend events like a baptism or wedding.  Sometimes komboloi are used to decorate these.

At one time worry beads were used in public only by men.  That has changed, and women using komboloi are accepted in all but rural settings.  

It was in another novel I read,  that a British spy, incognito, sent SOS by the clicking of his beads in Morse code.  My father, who has been into ham radio (and thus Morse code) since his teens, says that is impossible, because some clicks need to be longer than others.  This has been a source of contention between my parents for years. Okay, my father doesn't really know anything about it, but my mom disagrees with him.  (That just doesn't have the same punch!!)  My mom thinks (and I do too) that it would be possible to slide the beads together, thus producing a longer sound, in contrast to the clicking.

I think, rather than troubling Panos with any more questions, 
I need to just buy a komboloi and experiment myself!  
                                               
                                                                                  ~    Michele Davidson

                                                                                                                                                                             

greece.greekreporter.com/2012/12/05/the-history-and-how-to-of-komboloi-a...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worry_beads

www.athensguide.com/journalists/articles/evileye.htm

www.livescience.com/40633-evil-eye.html

www.discoverallgreece.com/what-is-the-meaning-of-greek-evil-eye/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye

HONESTLY VINTAGE
The Potti Team Blog

Honesty is the key to successfully selling vintage clothing online, according to Potti Team members Barbara of OutOfTheAttic2U, and Sara of PetitChatVintage.  Both of them, in fact, view this as their greatest strength.  It is by no means the only strength of either!

Barbara is a spunky great-grandmother with tons of energy and drive left for her shop!  She researches online and in lots of books to correctly date the clothing and accessories that she finds - this is crucial for her.  She loves "girly" clothing, and delights in offering items that will be exactly right for one of her buyers.  "It gives me great pleasure in seeing another's joy," she says.

Barbara describes her shop offerings as "mainly mod, funky and unique and in very good pre-owned condition," adding that she also has the occasional unworn vintage item complete with tags.  She says that " today's styles can be whatever you want and so [she has] most of those styles." 

     

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Sara came from a degree in history to vintage clothing.  She has a love for historical things, and a special interest in those of the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties.  She says of herself, in fact, "I'm like a human IMDB,"(international movie data base).

Her shop is named after her cat, PetitChat, which is Little Cat in French.  The items she chooses for her shop are all "relevant to today's fashion in some kind of way," she shares.  (When you see the fur from her shop, please know that it is faux, though quite authentically vintage.)

I find particularly fascinating the dating of vintage clothing, and asked Sara to share a glimpse into her process with us. She says that a vital resource is vintagefashionguild.org.

These are some of her tips, in her own words.

"Dating accurately is key! …The Vintage Fashion Guild website [is] a life saver! The VFG has a section where you can look at specific designer labels (Dior, Calvin Klein, JC Penney, etc.) and compare your own label to the images of labels from certain eras. It makes dating a snap!

When it comes to dating fashion, knowing trends in style and labels helps. Here are a few tips!

- KNOW TRENDS! The 80s were all about neon, lace, and acid wash. A lot of labels from the 80s have loud, bright images on them. 70s... polyester, high ruffled collars on women's clothes... Hippies! 60s... mod, miniskirts, A-line.

-A lot of 70s/80s labels might say the clothing company's name, then the city where it was made underneath. So you might see something like "Rebecca Stessens of California."

-They didn't start really getting into mass clothing labels until the 60s. If you see something old looking that might be 60s in style, with no label... it could be 50s!

-Does the country your vintage item was made in not exist anymore? A huge key to dating your item! Yugoslavia is a country that produced a lot of clothing in the 80s that does not exist anymore.

©Photl.com

-Metal zippers. Zippers from the 50s, 60s, and even early 70s look different than modern zippers. They're chunky metal... not a synthetic plastic looking zipper. Zippers on the side of garments was a big trend in the 40s through the 60s.

-ILGWU! I love ILGWU tags on items. They make dating very easy. ILGWU stands for International Ladies Garment Worker Union. The Union is no longer in existence, they disbanded in the mid-90s. If you have an all blue ILGWU label, your item is probably 70s or earlier. If it's got a bit of red on it, it's probably 80s or more modern. ILGWU labels have different writing on them based on their era. It's pretty easy to look this up on the internet."

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Another Potti Team shop that carries vintage clothing and accessories, among other things, is MyBijouxBoutique.  Susannah and Karen often have charming vintage gloves and headscarves from the Sixties, as well as vintage clothing and other accessories.

Some of our vintage jewelry shops carry vintage accessories, and occasionally our general vintage shops have vintage clothing as well.  Quite notably at the moment, 2ndChanceSerendipity is carrying two Edwardian jackets!! I could not neglect to mention those!!

Many of us miss one or more of the styles of bygone decades - those darling fitted suits, the comfortable sundresses, the bright silky satins.  Why not give these delightful ladies a visit, and see their lovely shop items for yourself!   ~Michele Davidson